Combating piracy with Eekels pumps
4 October 2011
This year, a large dredger was built in a Chinese shipyard for a Dutch dredging company. On its voyage from China to a European port the new ship had to travel a long distance by sea, during which the notorious coastal waters of Somalia would also be navigated. Measures to prevent piracy included pumps rented from Eekels.
Anti piracy plan
The coastal waters of Somalia have been notorious for many years because of Somalian pirates who, armed with automatic weapons, try to board ships using fast small boats. An anti piracy plan was developed to protect the new dredger. One provision of this plan – in addition to a barrier of barbed wire along the railings – was the installation of a pipe ring around the whole ship with which, if necessary, a water curtain could be created with spray nozzles. This would prevent the pirates coming on board, while their boats would furthermore be very quickly swamped with water.
In safe haven
To supply the required water from the ship’s ballast tanks, four high pressure diesel motor pump sets from the Eekels rental range, each with a capacity of 600 m3/hour at a pressure of 10 bar, were urgently flown to China, mounted on the ship’s deck and connected to the pipe ring. The photo shows the system during a test. The dredger has recently moored ‘in safe haven’.
